Lithuania

Whose in? I will be there again with a little more determination this time now that i have the first race out of the way.

ryand

I am out this week, and possibly next week.

This weekend myself and two other members of our team are doing the MS150.

Also, Wayne is in Las Vegas for Interbike, and I don't know if he will be back in time for this.

We might have one or two other team members there though.

(I think jpearl is going)

*new*guy

i'll see you there. i really want to win a copy of that 6 day documentary.

dirtyphotons

^sweet prize, i saw a screening of that at the draft house last winter. i got ms150 this weekend, but i'll see you guys at the antietam velo club one the next week.

Schiek

C race is already closed. If I go, I guess I'll have to do the Masters 35. yikes.

Lithuania

is it really? I just signed up yesterday. Im sure you could still show up and get a spot in the 4s.

Schiek

Confirmed rider list reached 60. I'll bet they cap it there because the course is tighter than Charm City. Probably don't want a repeat of the clusterf**k that was the C race last week. If I go, I'll jump in the masters race. It will be a good challenge.

Lithuania

chances are all 60 people arent going to show so you can probably still get in. I made it into several crits that filled up this year by signing up on race day.

*new*guy

That's the right way to approach it

I'll be in the Masters race as well.

Ghostman

I'll be there in the C's.

Also, if I suck (I mean more than usual) it is because I have a cold.

That is my excuse. Provided to you in advance.

Lithuania

haha dave. thats why i race with a single gear. to have an excuse

vpower

I'll see your single gear, and raise you a week's worth of drinking and eating at interbike.

I'll be in the proteus jersey. my name is jim.

jpearl

Jpearl will be in the action as well, looking to fight it out in the Men's C class. Be sure to cheer for the guy on the blue and silver Cannondale with the beige Cinelli cork ribbon handlebars (as I will be most appreciative). Looking forward to seeing all of the Bike Rack DC guys again and looking forward to 40 mins +1 lap of speed, craziness, pain, dismounting and remounting, bunnyhopping, and all-out fun tommorow.

*new*guy

man that was fun. nice job, steve, and thanks for the pb&j.

Lithuania

i had a blast. i still cant believe how well i did. i love how friendly this sport is too.

jpearl

Man, I'm at a loss for words; that race today was just ridiculous amounts of fun. I've never had so much fun racing a bike in my life, and that course was a blast to ride. Between twisitng around the lillyponds, pushing the big ring on the dirt and gravel roads out back, working the dropoffs, and riding the twisty, underlating technical stuff on the backside, my head's gonna be loaded with awesome memories for a time to come.

This was my second CX race ever, and I did much better than last week at Charm City. I couldn't quite grasp how people got hooked on CX before I started racing it myself, but now that I'm doing it, I'm hooked my self. Great race, great course, great setting, great people. Hellz friggin' yeah!

Ghostman

Here is my race report. But first: Damn you Riskus for beating me with your single speed!

OK, Here we go:

I was sick last week but by Saturday I was starting to feel better so I loaded up with Advil and did the all-day clinic with Andy Applegate at Lilypons. That was really good and I urge any first-timers interested in cross to sign up next year if they do it again. It would not be very useful for experienced crossers.

Sunday I was debating about whether I could handle the race but I really wanted to do it and I am glad I did.


I told myself that at the worst I would just "ride my own race", not go crazy and kill myself and just try to at least get a good workout in and practice my skills. I was really sucking wind on Saturday because of the cold so my expectations were low.


Partly because of that, I was stupid and did not line up at the front but kind of got stuck in the bathroom line and took my time getting to the start. Stupid. I was shocked to see I was like 50-60th wheel.

I think it cost me a good 30 seconds or so because I got stuck behind a slow guy and then had to avoid a crash. But I passed a lot of people on the first grass section and then before the barriers and managed to get up to about 35th wheel (of maybe 80?) by the time we got into the ponds. Through the ponds and then through the long fast gravel road section I probably passed about 10 more people.

Anyway, for the rest of the race (the next 3 1/4 laps) it was just me against my inner voice of reason and two guys who were near me. The three of us traded leading, etc etc. I kept losing time on the technical section on the back nine (I had decided to run up that last hill under Joe Jefferson instead of trying to ride it and I kept flubbing the remounts). Almost crashed a few times (once when a lapper from the women's B race went down right in front of me and drove me into the weeds, causing the guy behind me to yell, helpfully: "Dude, when you're wearing the course, get off and run!").

Ended up finishing in the middle of my group of three (I should have attacked those guys and beaten them both but what can I say).
All of the above translated into 26th. Of 83.

I feel good about that result. I almost stayed in bed and didn't even race so I am glad I was even out there. I think if I had lined up at the front and had a clean start I would be in the top 15-20 but it's hard to say.

I want to keep training hard (harder) and working on my transition skills and concentrate on getting good starts and I think that will get me a few places up.

I like cross. Less nerves than road racing. Better and friendlier atmosphere also.

In fact, notwithstanding all the window dressing of run-ups, sandpits, logs, brackish pools, arbitrary wooden planks sticking 40 cm up from the ground and all the rest, cross (at my low level anyway) is really mostly a time trial masquerading as a mountain bike race dressed up like a crit.

Lithuania

I crashed pretty hard near the ponds on a turn. The previous corner a guy kinda lost it and leaned into me a bit as i tried to go round. He stayed next to me forcing me to take the next turn wide which i didnt think was a big deal but I guess there was a big hole because my front wheel went in it and threw me over my bars.

I also had to run that last hill on the switchbacks. I just couldnt keep my momentum up enough to get me going on the single gear up that hill.

I wish I would have known I was on the last lap too.